Date of Award

Spring 2025

Document Type

Thesis

Terms of Use

© 2025 Abigail Turner. This work is freely available courtesy of the author. It may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. For all other uses, please contact the copyright holder.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Engineering Department

First Advisor

E. Carr Everbach

Second Advisor

Remi Beaulac

Abstract

With the exponential rise in fossil fuel consumption, an efficient clean alternative energy source is needed. A promising solution is utilizing solar-driven electrolysis to produce clean hydrogen as a viable clean energy source. Electrolysis currently accounts for 4% of hydrogen production, and this report details the development and optimization of a small-scale solar driven device for PEM electrolysis as an alternative to fossil fuels. This report focused on analysis for the optimization of electrocatalysts, and the integration of a PV-PEM-Battery system. Evaluation of three different membranes performance determined an anode loading of 2 mg/cm2 of IrRuOx to be the best performing and most efficient (ηmax=92.5%, ηvoltage=79.14%). PV-PEM-Battery system analysis verified the successful indirect coupling of components using MPPT tracking and a step-down DC-DC converter. Analysis also verified the reliability of the system to provide consistent power to the electrolyzer despite intermittent periods of irradiance, and regardless of the battery charge state. Suggested operating conditions were determined to be in a range from 1.7-1.85V, and quantification of hydrogen output within the acceptable operating range was conducted. It was determined that the output rate for the system at 1.85V, 4A and at 25oC was 34.43 mL/min. A system design was carried out for a scaled-up system based on experimental data and theoretical extrapolation yielding a feasible, yet conservative design consisting of a 286 cell stack, with 109 PV panels, operating at 1.8V and 25oC. For future work, I would focus on full system development and analysis.

Keywords

Photovoltaic-Electrolysis, Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolysis, PV-PEM-Battery system, Green hydrogen technologies, I-V curves

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